NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg does not support Poland's shooting down of Russian missiles over Ukrainian territory. He said this in an interview as part of the United News telethon.
He emphasised that the military bloc will continue to support Ukraine: "we have now increased our support, in particular through various air defence systems."
"Of course, the F16 is very important in this context. We will provide more ground-based air defence systems and ammunition to the existing capabilities. This will include Patriot and NASAMS tactical systems, which is extremely important," he said.
However, Stoltenberg stressed that NATO's policy remains unchanged - the Alliance "will not be involved in this conflict".
"We will not become part of the conflict," the Secretary General said.
According to him, the Alliance supports Ukraine in destroying Russian aircraft, but will not be directly involved.
- A few days ago, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that his country is considering shooting down Russian missiles that may enter their territory "by mistake" during Russian attacks on Ukraine.
- Sikorski noted that the proposal, which was initially put forward by Kyiv, is included in the joint defence agreement signed by both countries. The bilateral security agreement with Poland, which was signed on 8 July, is the first of the bilateral security agreements signed so far to provide for the possibility of intercepting missiles and drones in Ukraine's airspace fired in the direction of Poland.
- The last time a Russian missile flew into Polish territory was on 24 March 2024, when Russia targeted energy facilities in the Lviv Region. One missile flew into Poland and stayed there for 39 seconds. Because of this, aviation, including NATO aircraft, was sent into the sky. The country's Foreign Ministry said it would demand an explanation from Russia as to how the missile entered NATO airspace.
- Last spring, the remains of a "military object" with an inscription in Russian were discovered in Poland.
- On 29 December, during the largest missile attack on Ukraine in 2023, a Russian missile violated Polish airspace. The missile stayed there for about three minutes and flew almost 40 km inland.
- On 15 November 2022, during the Russian Federation's shelling of Ukraine, one of the missiles fell on the territory of Przewodów, Lublin province. At the time, the Polish Foreign Ministry said it was "of Russian origin". Because of the missile fall, Poland convened the National Security and Defence Council and launched an investigation with the participation of international experts. Later, Poland stated that the missile was Ukrainian.